The meanings of words ebb and flow over time — it doesn’t take a doctorate in linguistics to figure that out. Words such as “gaywicked” and the oft-overused “cool” have significantly different or more complex meanings in the modern vernacular than they did when they were originally coined. I imagine most people would consider these changes for the better.Some words, however, have managed to stick around for far too long and maintain meanings that are no longer relevant to the modern world. There are several words in the English language that I would love to declare outdated and do away with, but I can think of few that are as truly outdated as the word “counterculture”.Sociological literature defines counterculture as any movement that runs in contrast to the mainstream culture in a particular time, particularly those that establish the unwritten rules of society — the norms. For many people, the idea of counterculture brings up hazy, tie-dyed images of hippies spinning happily in fields or pot-addled protests of the Vietnam War. While counterculture itself is embodied within those events, the concept and meaning of the word actually has a bit more to do with the mainstream culture that was so pervasive at that time.  The hippie movement of the 1960s was a reaction to the social conservative and unitary culture present in the US after World War II. The world was changing, and the hippies reacted to the perceived oppression by mainstream culture. Their actions were performed intentionally against the dominating culture at the time, thus they were a legitimate counterculture. There were also conservative countercultures at the time, most notably Barry Goldwater’s contingent, but the hippies are the most commonly cited.If legitimate countercultures have existed in the past, then there should be no issue with keeping the term intact — there are still mainstream cultures, and there are still groups of people who react to those cultures.  But as with everything these days — the situation is more complex than that. Modern usage of the term counterculture is inappropriate for two main reasons: mainstream culture is more fluid than ever and the groups that run counter to it are most likely not doing so in protest. To declare a social group a counterculture there must be an easily identifiable mainstream culture to react against. We can all easily identify facets of culture that are particularly mainstream, but our modern consumerist culture changes daily and seems to shift its values more frequently than ever before. This is in stark contrast to the period that brought us the term counterculture. The 1950s were a rare time of near complete unity in the US, and they didn’t last that long — if they ever even existed outside of television. The countercultures of that time shook many of those commonly held values to their cores and pushed American society forward. The Civil Rights movement alone was a major paradigm shift.  Furthermore the proliferation of media and technology — particularly the Internet — allows for more marginalized cultures to create a community of their own even though members may be miles away from each other.  In short, our culture is less homogenized and far more complex than ever before, so a 1950s style unified culture is nearly impossible to define or even imagine in modern times. Identifying the singular culture is just half the battle though — for there to be a battle at all there must be intent. The counterculture of the ‘60s is one that fought against the oppression of the mainstream, but without that mainstream and in the presence of a more supportive environment many groups merely want to be left alone — they aren’t counter to anything, they just want to live their lives in their own ways.  The group most commonly labeled as the modern “counterculture” are the members of the LGBT community.  While the majority of Americans do not identify as gay, those that do are not doing so despite the straight community — they just want to live their lives in peace. I’m not going to argue that there are no groups that work in spite of mainstream culture, but I will suggest the existence of those groups does not justify the use of an antiquated term to blanket all non-mainstream culture. It’s easy to say that they’re “just words”, but in 2008 I think we should all know better than that — words and their meanings are often reflections of trends and attitudes.Our world grows more complex by the day and the words we use to describe it should also. —-contact Skylar Gremillion at [email protected]^